Bedtime story
by Lil-Samuu
Summary: During game oneshot piece of fluff featuring Colette and Sheena.


During game one shot piece of fluff, unsurprisingly, that features Sheena and Colette. :)

Spoiler warnings: This fic contains a pretty big spoiler about where Sheena comes from. If you don't know anything about that and don't want to know about that then please don't read this until you do.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. Namco own it I believe. I'm just a fan who likes writing about it. :)

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Sheena muttered under her breath, complaining to no one in particular about the fact that the inn the group was staying at was so cold. Even with slippers and a dressing gown on the journey between the bathroom and the room she was staying in was cold. She shuffled along the hallway quickly, went through the door to her room and closed it behind her. Then she threw off her dressing gown and slippers and jumped into her bed, sighing as she found the blissful warmth of the hot-water bottle tucked inside it. 

A noise that sounded like a complaint about the cold caught her attention and she looked over at the other bed in the room, laughing at the sight of Colette trying to make a tight cocoon out of her blanket. Her efforts apparently weren't good enough, however, as she was still shivering slightly.

"Hey, Sheena, it's really cold tonight isn't it?" the little blonde said.

Rather than being a simple random statement about the weather the summoner recognised something in the angel's tone of voice that turned the sentence into a request. She rolled her eyes good-naturedly and patted the space beside her on the bed.

Colette dragged the blanket from the bed she'd been in, her hot-water bottle and the small plush toy dog she often seemed to sleep cuddled up with onto Sheena's bed. She buried under the blankets and the older girl complained that the blonde's hands were cold.

"I've only got one hot-water bottle and I was using that to keep my feet warm," Colette grumbled, clearly unimpressed by the weather. Sheena laughed, the indignant tone that the little angel had used had an amusing quality to it.

"You think it's funny? You think me freezing is funny! Well, I'll show you, I'll turn into a icicle and become a ghost and then I'll haunt you," Colette said playfully, making silly spooky noises. This just caused Sheena to continue giggling.

"Alright, you leave me no choice, to teach you a lesson for laughing at me I shall have to do this!" the little angel grinned, placing her hands, which were still cold, on Sheena's cheeks.

"Aggh, cold!" the summoner yelped, trying to move away. Colette moved to tickle the summoner.

"See, not so funny now is it?" she giggled as she tickled the older girl under her arms. Sheena just continued giggling.

"Honestly, these Mizuho ninjas, thinking it's funny when someone freezes in a cold inn," Colette said, smiling, as she stopped tickling Sheena and settled back down under the blankets.

"Sorry, you just sounded so funny," the dark haired girl chuckled, giving the blonde a hug. "How about I apologise with a story?"

"A story? Please!" Colette nodded eagerly, her expression similar to the one that Noishe pulled when someone said "dog biscuit" to him. Sheena smiled softly and ruffled the angel's hair as she reached over to the bag that was beside the bed and fished out a book. She propped herself up against the pillows and allowed Colette to snuggle up to her comfortably before tucking the blankets around them cozily and opening the book.

Sheena knew that reading bedtime stories was something that people traditionally did for young children but she and Colette both enjoyed the quiet time before sleep when the summoner shared a story with the little angel. She read stories from books that she'd brought with her from her village. She'd taken a selection of books with her as a memento of home. Not knowing whether or not she'd see her village, or even her home world, again, she had packed a few random books written in Mizuhoan in with the other stuff she'd put together to take on her trek to the other world.

Reading the books reminded her of her village, the characters on the page were so familiar to her. She had taught Colette to read some of them but as she'd only been studying the language for a short time the blonde was far from fluent. She seemed to enjoy the stories very much though. She'd been starved of fiction when she was a child, forced to spend most of the time she had for reading on texts connected with her title or school books. She loved listening to the stories Sheena read to her and listened intently every time the summoner read them until she became so tired that she'd have to give in to sleep. The only times she would interrupt were when she wanted something explained, usually cultural details, Mizuho traditions that Sheena had not taught her about yet, or if she came across a character that the summoner had recently taught her and wanted to check if she had recognised it right.

Both of them found the stories comforting. The warmth from being snuggled up under the blankets together was pleasantly cozy and the tales the books contained allowed them to forget the harsh, difficult quest they were on for a while, letting their imagination take them somewhere else. The characters on the page were familiar in a way that made Sheena feel relaxed and happy and they presented an interesting challenge to Colette who wanted to learn to recognise more of them, getting pleasure from being able to read some of them when characters she could understand appeared.

Sheena began to read, the light from the candle on her bedside table casting a warm glow around the room, providing the light for her to see what was written on the pages by, and somehow, now, the room seemed less cold.


End file.
